German Patent DE 37 18 131 C2 discloses a device for the transport of film sheets, the device having a transport table over which film sheets output from a cassette loading and unloading apparatus are transported to a developing apparatus. The transport table is selectably adaptable to different loading and unloading slots of the attached apparatuses. This device is suitable, however, only for straight-line transport from the cassette loading and unloading apparatus to the developing apparatus, for which purpose the apparatuses are to be arranged in a line one behind another. It is disadvantageous that this arrangement requires a long positioning depth or length for the entire assemblage of apparatuses. In addition, the loading and unloading points of the apparatuses are arranged on sides which face away and are remote from one another.
A modification of a transport device which is improved over the aforesaid device is disclosed by German Patent DE 44 17 050 A1, in which the films are transportable, by means of a transport carriage provided with several conveyor belts, to the loading and unloading slots which are arranged at different heights from one another.
European Patent Application EP 0 309 874 B1 discloses a handling apparatus for X-ray film cassettes with a phosphor-coated foil as a recording material. The cassettes to be processed do not need to be individually loaded into the handling apparatus, but can be loaded automatically from a cassette stack into the apparatus. For this purpose, appropriately configured cassette stack holders for the cassettes being loaded or unloaded are used, which are each arranged in front of a vertically extending cassette loading and unloading slot of the processing apparatus. In this context, transport of the cassettes from the loading slot--via apparatuses, for example, for detecting the cassette format, reading out patient data, laser-scanning the latent image on the phosphor-coated foil, etc.--to the unloading slot takes place in essentially straight-line fashion through the apparatus. This transport system also requires that the handling apparatus be long, and therefore occupies a large volume.
A reading unit for X-ray cassettes having a phosphor-coated foil as recording material (Scanner for PSL Radiography) is described by European Patent Application EP 0 747 752 A1. In this, a cassette is transported from a cassette stack, by means of correspondingly configured elements, via an elongated transport belt to a scanner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,128 discloses a receiving device for X-ray cassettes in a handling apparatus (autoloader) suitable for the transport of vertically positioned cassettes of different formats with no need for additional pallets. This device substantially has a part, configured as a separating mechanism, with a number of slots into which the cassettes are loaded. By means of a part which can be lifted and lowered vertically and moved horizontally forward in steps, and which has a number of slots that corresponds to the number of slots in the separating mechanism, the cassettes are transported to a transfer device which transfers them into the reading and erasing unit.
This transport device is, however, of complex physical construction and, because of the large number of moving parts whose movements must be precisely adjusted to one another, is also susceptible to malfunctions.